The Chief Electoral Office in Bengaluru has tweeted that all the available information on the deletion of voters in Aland assembly constituency was handed over to the Superintendent of Police in Kalburgi district on September 6, 2023, for completing the investigation. The post on X by the Electoral Office is in response to the allegations made by the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, in New Delhi today.

The statement says that 6018 online applications in Form 7 were submitted to the Electoral Registration Officer, ERO, from Aland during December 2022. Suspecting the genuineness of such a large number of applications for deletion of electors’ names, verification of each application was conducted by ERO, AERO and BLOs. Only 24 applications were found to be genuine, and another 5994 were incorrect. Accordingly, 24 applications were accepted, and 5994 incorrect applications were rejected, and the voters’ names were not deleted.

The statement issued by the Electoral office further says that the details of the complainant, his EPIC number, mobile number used for login, software application medium, IP address, his place of residence, user creation date and form reference number were shared with the district police Chief.

It adds that the Chief Electoral Officer in Karnataka had conducted a meeting with the investigating officer and Cyber Security experts of the police to review the progress of the investigation. Based on the inquiry findings by ERO and BLOs, FIR was lodged with the Inspector of Police in Aland Police Station on February 21, 2023.